An agency spearheading attempts to combat money laundering said that it was imposing new "countermeasures" against Ukraine for failing to take a tough enough stand on illegally recycled funds.

The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), backed by some 30 countries, said in a statement it would hold off on threats to take similar action against Nigeria "for the time being".

Ex-Soviet Ukraine is on the FATF international blacklist of countries with poor money laundering regulations. Attempts to adopt tougher laws recently failed to make it through parliament.

The FATF agency said countermeasures could include tougher controls on financial dealings with Ukraine and its banks, and advisories by FATF governments to business on the risks of money laundering when doing business in Ukraine.

Oleksiy Berezhny, an official at Ukraine's finance ministry, said earlier this year that failure to approve the law would hit Ukraine's credit ratings and scare investors.

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